Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Dylan S · Veteran Joined: 15 Oct 2009 Posts: 515

One of my players in 50F is playing a necromancer. We added 'Death' as a fifth element to the world, including a custom spell-list. The other four elements have Bolt so, what the hey, she got Bolt too.

Now, her trapping is that it only works on living creatures. She can't Bolt a door down or Bolt a ship to pieces. I want to compensate this with a cool buff to her character.

The best I've come up with is:
Every time she Incaps someone with Bolt, she drains its energy into herself and gains a counter. The next time she Raises Zombie, the zombie gets +1 toughness per counter. So, she could go on a murder-spree and then raise a mega-zombie if she wanted to. It's neat, but it's kind of bland. I'm considering allowing +1 Ability die type per counter instead... so, if she Bolts five pirates to death, she could raise a Zombie with STR d12 (+3) and Vigor 10 (+2). Maybe the drained energy should only last until the end of the scene, day, week?

What do you guys think? Too weak? Too powerful? On track, but not quite there?

ogbendog · Heroic Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 1913

how about it works on living, or once living (leather, wood, etc) but not stone, metal, etc.

which also means that stone or metal armor, cover, etc don't count.

Sadric · Veteran Joined: 10 Jul 2003 Posts: 995

I think its powerfull. You could make a really tough zombie this way. There sould be a limit, maybe the rank of the charakter, maybe rank+2 with a new edge.

I like the idea of saving kills for later. But I would limit it to a week or so.

The element of death is closely connected to the dark gods, I would guess. Maybe add some corrupting influence? Maybe create a table for a natural 1 on the casting die so its possible to gain permanent mental hindrance (or even ugly, oneeyed or such things) with really high rolls. Add the death counters as bonus to this roll, you know, the trapped souls churn on your mentality.

Another idea is to last the zombie spell longer with each death counter.
On death counter=minutes instead of rounds, two death counter= hours, three death counter=days.

Zadmar · Heroic Joined: 10 Nov 2010 Posts: 1381 Location: Munich

SavageGamerGirl · Heroic Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 1255

ogbendog · Heroic Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 1913

Zadmar · Heroic Joined: 10 Nov 2010 Posts: 1381 Location: Munich

Starhawk · Novice Joined: 09 Aug 2012 Posts: 53

There ARE living creatures that require Heavy Weapon to be affected, I believe. Although I don't know if any of them exist in the 50F world.

Zadmar · Heroic Joined: 10 Nov 2010 Posts: 1381 Location: Munich

jpk · Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 9:14 pm Post subject:

We pretty routinely have powers with trappings that only affect living things in our home games, and we've generally found the pros and the cons even out (especially with blast).

Sure, you can't break out of jail that way, but you'll never accidentally blow up the wondrous McGuffin of awesomeness, either.

Takeda · Heroic Joined: 28 Apr 2009 Posts: 1333

Well there was a player in my game that had his AB be all about modifying gravity.

Bolt fired little mini-black-holes. It meant if a baddie was killed it was often folded over (with a loss in mass) in some brutal fashion.

Legerdemain was gravity manipulation and Wall Walker was also gravity manipulation.
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Dylan S · Veteran Joined: 15 Oct 2009 Posts: 515

jpk · Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:47 pm Post subject:

I suppose that depends on what he's losing in return. Like I said, I think the "can't break stuff/won't break stuff" swap is even, but you might get some other ideas in there.

Is he going to get a rough time when people realize he's a necromancer? That's probably a good enough balance against a slight AP right there, and it's something you can just sort do without prior negotiation. Heck, he probably won't even be surprised when that's the way it is.

But that's just a thought.

Zadmar · Heroic Joined: 10 Nov 2010 Posts: 1381 Location: Munich

The One · Veteran Joined: 14 May 2003 Posts: 768

I'd say that the bolt gains AP 1 or 2, in return for not being able to affect non-living matter such as iron, stone etc. If you think about it in terms of entropy, metals and stone will resist for a very long time, whilst organic matter decays and rots.

The bypassing a degree of armour is because only metallic armours have sufficiant density to slow the bolt.
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xxlgeeklord · Seasoned Joined: 21 Nov 2011 Posts: 249

AP2 is the equivelant of +1 damage, which is about +1 PP cost. If you think that it is so much of a drawback just say the attack has AP2 against any armor that isn't alive. It's part of the fact that it only affects living things, and thus passes straight through most armor. It'll also pass through walls if she knows there's someone on the other side of them, ignore cover, and it can be used to identify undead/constructs. This seems fairly balanced, although maybe a bit powerful.
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